LINCOLN POLICE then & now - City of Lincoln & Lancaster County

E X E M P L A R Y P R O G R A M
At the Lincoln Police Department, officers are often afforded opportunities to conduct goal-oriented projects.
These can be special details or Problem Oriented Policing ( POP ) Projects. This form of community
policing is designed to impact unique or repetitive issues by implementing specific strategies to target the
problem. The Lincoln Police Department tries to be proactive and stay aware of developing crime trends
within the city. In 2010, there were two projects that stood out among the rest.
On the Northwest Team, Officers Jennings and Ortiz spent the summer months in plain clothes, monitoring
areas with a large amount of transient activity. One of the primary goals was to reduce more serious crimes
occurring in eight identified districts. Near 1st and O Streets, business owners complained that, despite
signs and request to leave their properties, transients lingered, passed out and left behind large quantities
trash. Citizen complaints centered around illegal activity on the bike trails, including drinking, fighting and
morals violations. The officers adjusted their hours and trudged through heavily wooded areas to locate
transient camps. Through that summer, temperatures were in excess of 90 degrees, with matching humidity, as they battled ticks and mosquitoes. The more
their presence became known and word spread about their methods ( full black clothing at night, use of binoculars, hiding in dense ground cover ) , people
became more reluctant to commit crimes in these areas. At the conclusion of the project, in six of the eight areas targeted, calls for service decreased. In
addition, the officers cleared thirty-eight warrants and issued 159 citations for on-view violations. Fewer burglaries, robberies and sexual assaults were reported
than the previous year. Officers Jennings and Ortiz grabbed an opportunity to work with a group that is often times forgotten and left unchecked. Through their
observations, the project illustrated a need for more plain clothes work with plans to continue these efforts in the future.
During a three month period, Officers D. Moore and A. Ripley, were assigned to the Northeast Team as plain clothes investigators.
Their primary task was to investigate Crime Stoppers tips received through TipSoft. In May 2009, the Lincoln/Lancaster County
Crime Stoppers website underwent a radical make-over. More photos were made available to the public and Captain Srb
launched TipSoft software, making it easier for citizens to provide information to law enforcement. The software gives Lincoln
Police access to the tips immediately after they are received. This allows quicker follow-up and increased chances of clearing
cases. With these changes, tips skyrocketed. Officers and detectives had trouble following up on the increased influx of
information. During the course of their assignment, Officers Moore and Ripley spent a great deal of time making contacts and
cultivating informants. This attention to detail led to felony arrests, narcotics arrests and the generation of multiple warrants. In
total, they made twenty-three felony arrests, forty-three misdemeanor arrests, fourteen warrant arrests and cleared fifty-one
Crime Stoppers tips. Several of their arrests were for high profile crimes pictured on the Crime Stoppers website, including a
convenience store burglary. Their tenacious work on this temporary, yet very productive project, did not go unrecognized.